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Longmont children's home adds houses, space for youths

By Whitney Bryen

Times-Call community reporter

Posted:
05/28/2014 04:33:54 PM MDT

Updated:
05/28/2014 05:43:04 PM MDT

Mountain States Children's Home has broken ground on one of two new houses that will allow the nonprofit to nearly double its capacity for neglected, abused and abandoned children across the Front Range.

The Longmont-based home for troubled youths is currently at capacity caring for 18 children, but the new homes will allow the organization to take in up to 12 more children next year, said executive director Randy Schow.

The faith-based organization, which Schow describes as a "modern-day orphanage," provides housing, counseling, schooling and structure for children ages 3 to 17 while trying to reunite them with their parents or guardians.

Volunteers and construction crews are working on the foundation of a 4,800-square-foot house that will include common spaces and bedrooms and bathrooms for 10 residents — six clients, two house parents and room for two of the house parents' children.

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The nonprofit is talking with representatives from HomeAid Colorado, a program of the Colorado Association of Home Builders, about a second house. Construction has not begun on that house but is expected to start later this year and finish around the same time as the current construction.

The houses will be on the northwest side of the organization's 155-acre property on Highway 287 north of Longmont.

In the existing houses, two children share a bedroom and bathroom. The new homes will give children more privacy and, hopefully, make them feel more comfortable, Schow said.

"We're not just providing a place for them to live," Schow said. "We're providing a home for them, a family structure."

Rocky Mountain Christian Church has provided $500,000 of the estimated $700,000 cost of the first house and is providing volunteers from their congregation to help with construction. The second house is also expected to cost about $700,000, but the home builders association will cover 40 to 60 percent of the expenses, Schow said.

In addition to the cost of the new houses, the organization's operating costs will also increase from $1.4 million per year to about $1.7 million as more children move onto the property.

A thrift store that the nonprofit opened at 233 Main St. late last year will help support the increased costs.

Financial support is provided through donations and grants from area churches and family foundations, said development director Phil Crews. The nonprofit does not receive federal or state grants, he said.

"The fact is that these kids come from our communities, from our schools, from our families and I think our communities see that," Schow said. "They see that what we do is preventing these kids from ending up in the public arena, like juvenile detention centers or social services, and they support that."

Many of the children are brought to Mountain States by a parent or guardian who recognizes that there is a problem but does not know how to handle it, Schow said.

The goal is to reunite the child with the parent, usually a single mother, within 1½ years of entering the program, he said.

About two-thirds of the children are reunited with their parents, and the other one-third stay at the home through high school graduation.

A ground blessing will be held at the construction site at 2 p.m. June 8 to kick off the expansion plans and pray over the projects, Crews said.

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